August Trip Report 8.13 - 8.16

[snowflakegirl]

August 13th – August 16th

Our pre-Disney days. Sort of.

Cast
Me – Jen
DH – Joe
DS – H, Just turned 2 in June

8/13
Our flight wasn’t until mid afternoon, so we had some time to finish packing in the morning. We got to the airport with plenty of time to get through security and get something to eat before heading to our gate. The restaurant we stopped at had seating with a view of the gates, so H was thrilled to watch the airplanes coming in and taking off. He kept announcing whenever he saw another one. This was going to be his first flight, so I was a little anxious about how he was going to do.

We boarded the plane and got his car seat situated and him into it. The pilot let us know that we were on schedule and that the flight time into Orlando was going to be 2:29, putting us into Orlando almost half an hour early! Not five minutes later he came back on and said that while we were ready to go MCO was experiencing some inclement weather, so we were going to hold on the runway for 30 minutes prior to take off. I immediately started worrying that H wasn’t going to manage the whole flight, plus sitting there for half an hour. I had no reason to worry. He watched some Curious George and some Thomas the Train on my tablet, colored, read a few books with Mama, and generally enjoyed the flight. “Driving runway!” “Going up!” “Flying up in air in plane! Zoom!!” “I see ocean (mountains, water, trees, boat, etc)”. He did great!

Once off the plane, we got our luggage and rental car and hit the road. Of course, H who did not sleep on the flight because he was too excited, fell asleep 5 minutes out from the hotel. I checked us in while Joe stayed in the car with him and then we went out for dinner. We were just around the corner from Downtown Disney, so we decided to head there for dinner. Traffic and parking weren’t bad, and H woke up as we parked in the new garage. Not 10 feet off the escalator and out the door and H was in love with Disney, insisting on getting out of his stroller so that he could dance to the music which is everywhere in DTD. Dinner was Earl of Sandwhich, followed by a quick stop at the grocery store and then back to the hotel where H had a lot of trouble settling down for bed since he was SO excited.

8/14
H was awake off an on throughout most of the night and up for the day at 8…it was definitely going to be a coffee kind of day. We got a slow start to the day, savoring our coffee and that “I’m on vacation” feeling. We went to Walmart for a few more provisions (diapers take up way too much room for packing ;-) ) and then we head to French Quarter to explore. One of the things we really wanted to do with the four days ahead of our official Disney trip was to explore some of the things we never would make time for on our vacation, but which we were curious about…mostly exploring hotels. We loved French Quarter. Such pretty theming, the food court was fun to look at and we had delicious food. H got a kick out of tossing coins in the fountain in the lobby. And the Beignets. Yum.

After exploring, we drove out to Clearwater for a look at a Gulf Coast beach. What a beautiful area. We went to Clearwater Aquarium and saw Winter and Hope (the dolphins made famous by the Dolphin Tale and Dolphin Tale 2 movies…which we had never seen). It’s a nice little place, but definitely a marine animal rescue and research facility first and an aquarium second. H loved it, though. Afterwards, we drove along the beach and out to Sand Key park, which was beautiful, then met up with a friend of mine from grad school for dinner at French’s Rockaway Café. It was right on the beach overlooking the ocean. I tried grouper for the first time, which was tasty. After dinner we hung out on the beach for a bit while H danced to the music from a nearby bar.

8/15

We had to get up a bit earlier today and grabbed breakfast at the buffet in the hotel (we were staying at the Radisson Lake Buena Vista). Tasty and our waiter was great with H, which is always nice. Just after 8 we were in the car and heading out to Deland, a little over an hour from where we were. One of my former teachers, who has remained a friend of the family, retired and opened a company that does river tours on the St. John’s and Hontoon Dead Rivers in Deland. Unfortunately, our trip was timed exactly opposite of his trip (to the day, he flew north the day we flew south and was flying back south the day we flew north), so he was unable to captain our boat for our tour, but Captain Chris did a fantastic job! The area is gorgeous, and the views of the trees and water and general flora on the river were stunning, I could have happily spent an entire day there. The fact that we also got to see great blue heron, little blue heron, egret, anhinga, and baby alligators made it that much cooler. The fact that we were also able to see several manatee up close and personal in the river near us was just an incredible treat (and one I wasn’t expecting since the season for pretty much guaranteed manatee sightings in the river was over). H had a blast! He loved pointing out the things that he saw, and he learned a new word “manatee”. We ended up buying H his own stuffed alligator, which very quickly became a very loved stuffed animal which he insisted belonged in the crib with him. The woman running the desk where we bought the alligator was very nice and enjoyed chatting with H. (I highly recommend Blue Heron River Tours if you ever get the chance!)

Afterwards, we head back to Orlando to check out the new SeaLife Orlando Aquarium. It is not a huge aquarium, and it was a little crowded when we were there, but it was very well done, with lots of little bubbles and popups and tunnels for kids to feel like they were really a part of the aquarium. Plus a walk through with 180 degrees of aquarium and one 360 degree walk through surrounded by aquarium. H was in heaven, he loves aquariums. Of course, in true vacationaland style, it dumps you into a gift shop as an exit. H saw a huge stuffed octopus and declared “MY octpus. I YIKE it!” I managed to talk him down to a significantly smaller stuffed octopus…which also made it’s way into the crib that night along side the alligator.

We checked out Wilderness Lodge for dinner, just going to Roaring Forks. We had some absolutely delicious food. I especially loved my bbq pork sandwich and the cucumber salad. The Lodge is beautiful. It was so cool to see it. We head back to the hotel for some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (traveling with our Roku was a very good decision) and a relatively early bedtime for us all.

8/16

H was still adjusting to traveling and the level of excitement that he was experiencing daily, so again he didn’t sleep great, which led to a later than anticipated start to the day.

Once we finally got going, we head to the Poly, parked and rode the monorail a full loop and then went to the Grand Floridian. H was beside himself at riding on the “mondorail”. He just thought it was the coolest thing. Exploring the Grand Floridian did not excite him nearly as much. At one point I was attempting to shop in a store and he actually grabbed my hand and dragged me back into the lobby! We also discovered that he had a love of "Doc'n Stuffins" when he caught sight of a Doc McStuffins pin and got very excited (he has watched it at his grandparents' house). We managed to avoid buying him a pin, but knew we'd probably end up with a Doc souvenir later in he week. We got a quick and delicious snack in the quick service (a carrot zucchini muffin and an apple crumb cake) and then rode the monorail again back to the Poly to explore there. The Poly is beautiful! I really enjoyed the theming and wandering around. We got lunch at Capt Cooke’s before we left. My Thai Coconut Meatballs were incredible.

After a nap at the hotel, we were off to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping and meet up with our friends Kels, John and J for dinner. They had arrived on Saturday and had spent Sunday at Animal Kingdom. We had a delicious dinner at Paradiso37, which was a first for all of us. The Argentinian Skirt steak was delicious (as was my frozen margarita/sangria swirl).

Joe wanted to explore the Lego Store, so he shopped while the kids played in the lego table room in the back. They were having a great time. Joe picked out a set for himself and then H picked out a set (of Duplos) for himself, too. He loved his so much that he wouldn’t let us put in the bag or under the stroller and insisted on carrying it around with him the rest of the night.

Back to the hotel to pack up so that we could leave for the officially Disney part of our trip in the morning.

[faline]

Even though you weren't "officially" at Disney yet, you had a few lovely Florida days that included nice portions of Disney time!!

H sounds like he's a great little traveler!!